Bicycling Newsletters

This winter I put in a lot of miles on the bike while coaching at several weeklong Carmichael Training Systems camps, but I know from experience that late spring and early summer can be my downfall. I get busy with work and my kids' activities, and my cycling fitness just disappears.

But I have a solution to get me to the height of summer in peak condition, and you can use it too: intensity.

Even when you're busy, you can sneak out for short, fast workouts to maintain your fitness. Remember, intensity and volume are inversely related--the less riding you do, the more intensity you can pack into your training. The fortunate few who have unlimited riding time can cruise at a moderate pace most of the time and throw in a few intervals.

But if you're short on time and still want to keep up with the Sunday group ride or do some racing later in the season, then high-intensity workouts are the only way.

Not all intensity is the same, however. There's a big difference between doing a sprint workout (15-second efforts) and doing repeated one-minute max efforts. Both are hard, but because the power outputs are so drastically different, these workouts that seem similar won't yield the same results weeks from now.

For this plan, stick with the longer intervals, which work your sustainable power at threshold while at the same time stressing your aerobic engine, so you're killing two birds with one stone. Later in the summer, when you have more time to ride, you can do shorter efforts to quickly regain your explosive sprinting power.

To put this theory into practice, I'll do three one-hour rides during the week. If I'm lucky, I'll also be able to swing a three-hour endurance ride on Saturday or Sunday, but if I can't, it's not a huge deal.

Because these workouts are so intense, you'll want to take a recovery day between each interval day. For me, this means a Monday, Wednesday, Friday interval-workout schedule with the bonus endurance ride on the weekend.

Keep in mind that this schedule is intended only to get you through a three- to five-week crunch time when other important aspects of your life cut into your available training time. After that, you should go back to a typical seven-to-10-hour training week, and enjoy your summer.

Over Unders: During the "over" portions of these intervals, hit the gas as hard as you can. During the "under" portions, ride at your maximum sustainable pace (92 to 95 percent of time-trial heart rate, 85 to 90 percent of time-trial power). There's no rest between the "over" and "under" portions. Warm up for 10 to 15 minutes, then ride for two minutes "under," then one minute "over." Keep alternating for nine minutes. Rest 10 minutes, then complete a second interval. Advanced riders can increase these to 12-minute intervals. Cool down and you're done.

Descending Intervals: Hard intervals and short recovery periods yield big boosts in power output. These intervals are max efforts, and the interval times are the same as the recovery times. Warm up 15 to 20 minutes, then do the following set: two minutes hard, two minutes recovery, 90 seconds hard, 90 seconds recovery, then 75, 60, 45 seconds for the next three. Spin easy for 10 minutes and repeat the set. Cool down and you're done.

Hill Accelerations: Find a climb that takes five to eight minutes to complete. Warm up for 10 to 15 minutes, and then ride the first three to six minutes of the climb at your maximum sustainable climbing pace. From there, gradually accelerate to the top so you're riding all-out by the time you finish. Recover for 10 minutes and do it again. Cool down and you're done. If you don't have a hill nearby, you can do this workout on flat to rolling terrain; just increase the intensity from max sustainable to absolute maximum in the final two minutes of an eight-minute interval.

Chris Carmichael is Lance Armstrong's personal coach and author of ?5 Essentials for a Winning Life. Learn more at